Memoirs of a fool
by The Final Lament
Summary: Hear the tale of the 1st of the vampire slayers, 1st of the vampire slayers who actually killed one
1. Chapter 1

Authors Note: I do not own the books upon which this is based nor am I making any money from it,at the moment all characters are my own

It's amazing really, all these years fighting.

I'll never understand what quirk of fate caused me to become what I am. Perhaps it's better that way? For the past 100 years no longer able to continue my job (to think I once considered it my duty – what a laugh). Now I coordinate the efforts of others but not in the job I once performed, to think that as the 1st of my kind (well 1st to actually get anywhere) I should now take up the standard of what I once thought my enemy, Oh the bitter irony.

I have written this diary so to speak as an explanation, a confession and to explain to myself more than anything else why and how I became what I am, a beacon of hope, a symbol of hate and now the guardian and diplomat of an ancient enemy, enemy what a laugh if only I knew as much now as I had back then I would have just carried on with my daily life. Still I digress, for it is now as I grow too old to even coordinate and join in the many peace talks and truces and all the still ongoing diplomacy between the two worlds that I shall write my memoirs and then my body now so withered even their venom will not save me now I shall cast off this thin cloak of life and move on to what I saw as my final adventure.

Almost forgot, my name is (or is it was?) David Giles

And I was the 1st of the vampire slayers

Authors Note: plz review and can any criticism be as constructive as possible


	2. Chapter 2

So where to begin? I guess a basic rundown of my life before I got unwillingly thrown into the supernatural world is probably owed.

I have always by nature been a bit of a recluse, before back in my earlier secondary school years this bothered me, two years later I was no longer an outcast by social general agreement but by choice, really I had no chance, I spent half my life in the school library studying the science sections of non-fiction or being absorbed in the worlds created by such great authors as Tolkien or Paolini. To make me an even bigger outcast I was also always up to date on the latest scientific progress and to put it bluntly unlike most I knew how to fight. No I am not being macho here, at the time period we are discussing (not sure discussing is the right word, maybe relaying would be better) I was 14 and had been doing judo for 7 years (literally half my life at that point), I also knew how to punch and kick effectively, I knew nerve holds, sleeper holds, how to catch someone in the eye in the right way so as to blind them permanently, I also knew how to handle some weapons due to a year of fencing before then but as I am saying only a year so I wasn't that good.

To show even further my absolute difference from my peers lets use my room as an example, first things you will see when you enter is the mess, I know sure nothing that surprising I'm a teenager for god's sake, then you will see the desks and other surfaces stacked with scientific equipment , microscopes etc, and if you look really, really closely a small container of potassium I had smuggled out of school, then on the desk if you were really paying attention you would notice the cheap Swiss armies knife, nothing special couldn't cut butter with the damn thing but it had some uses. Then if you looked up slightly from this bizarre haphazard arrangement of science you would see the books, shelves of them, I was an utter bibliophile back then devouring anything with a readable text, thing is my room isn't very big so the reason it looks messy is I have to fit all this in a reasonably small space, now if you were a burglar and you checked to see if I was hiding anything in my wardrobes etc you would find some of my favourite books and 5 quid here and there. I was also weaponry mad scanning the internet for obscure blades and the like.

OK now you know how weird I was lets fast forwards to a day before my introduction to the weirder side of life (not that I didn't consider my life weird already).

I am 16 already aced my GCSE's a year ahead of everyone else and I was probably geekier than ever, still there were a few changes, for one I was no longer the weak green belt I had merely a month ago got my black, fortunately this didn't give me the over the top confidence boost which has been known to happen , I had just started Karate and had been doing Aikido for over a year, yes I know the sporty geek what a lovely picture, worthy of Picasso himself. My obsession for blades had gotten worse –n o I wasn't interested in using them though I merely admired the skill needed to use and make them- naturally my obsession had lead me to the Japanese blades whose swords were without a doubt the best in the world, I had bought a few replicas online and even a bokken (practice blade) to train with. I was still mad about books and still a target for constant name calling and fights (which I still nearly invariably won). I had however developed a few new interests. My latest craze I don't hear you ask... futuristic weapons, there were back then a few basic laser guns out there and as is my almost autistic tendency I went and bought them (although I hadn't made any yet).

I haven't really described my personality yet, I was non-confrontational, argumentative but willing to listen, I had a someone morbid and sarcastic sense of humour and was generally slightly cheerful.

I know what your thinking he's making this all up, he's making it sound like he was preparing even back then, I wasn't my weaponry obsessions were merely a hobby, a strange one but still just a hobby, as for the martial arts they were just ways to stay fit, to improve and to stay in contact with the real world if I'm quite honest, the science well I did like science and maths and it's really not my fault they came in handy, science is useful everywhere.

So once again I find myself hopelessly digressing, anyway my final day of normality was a Friday, school day but i had the weekend coming up and as I did every day I fell asleep around 12:20 I think after going to bed at 12 (I had a problem with sleeping that bordered on insomnia, also I had tested my limits at that time the record for me was 40hrs without sleep- never again I swore). It was to put it simply your average boring day.


	3. Chapter 3

Authors Note: The disclaimer in chapter 1 counts for the whole fic, I do not own the twilight saga nor am I making money from it

My final day of normality was to put it simply relatively normal, at 7:45pm I walked the mile to the judo club arrived in time for the 8 o'clock start did the 2 hours of it, then began to walk home, thats when my life took a turn for the worst (well at least I think worst is the correct time, might be better I am no longer sure)

I was walking down the road through the local park (just realised haven't said where I lived, I lived Bristol, England) when a hand was placed on my shoulder, now after you've been fighting in competitions for a while you reach the point where your opponents grip is enough to give a lot of data, for while observing his movements gives an idea of how they fight, they're grips give more of an idea on they're strength and speed, from that grip I learnt 3 things, one there is now way the person was friendly the way they were trying to crush my shoulder, two – he (for with that kind of strength it had to be a he) was far stronger than I was, fortunately from what I knew opponents that strong were usually slow, and three they were immensely cold, like a corpse.

Now there are a few factors which I credit to my survival of that night, one was that I was still full of adrenaline from the judo, so I automatically gripped the hand and rolled whoever it was over my shoulder as I dropped to my knees to speed the throw, textbook! Poor sod wouldn't know what hit him, or so I thought, to my shock they rolled out of it without even wincing, my opinion of my attacker had gone from "be cautious" to "oh god, I'm screwed". Then I saw my assailant, she was female!! Now I was creeped to put it bluntly. My assailant was immensely stronger than me, obviously combat trained by the way they escaped my throw, had better reflexes then I had (like I said that throw was textbook, there is no way she should have got out of that) and was if I were to make a random guess faster than me, now I very much doubted someone had sent a assassin after me so that left a few unanswered questions, well if I had my way they would stay unanswered.

The moment she regained her feet I did an open-handed strike to the nose, I thought I must have caught her off guard because - what luck - I connected, I was slightly remorseful about this really, age 16 and I was going to be a killer, still I was innocent of murder it was definitely self defence so at most a single night in a cell, this all flashed through my mind as my hand made contact and drove her nose into her brain.

Nope instead of the fatal blow causing a bloody mess I came away shaking my hand in pain from the impact, it was like hitting a rock, still bone was harder than steel so that was to be expected, I looked away from my throbbing hand to what should have been a corpse falling to the floor. And there she was standing there obviously amused at my attempts, now I knew without a doubt I was going to die, there was obviously nothing I could throw at this chick that would make one iota's difference to the outcome, I sighed audibly.

"Well, what are you waiting for, I'm out of tricks, just kill me and get it over with." I said my voice utterly flat and my face as deadpan as I could make it.

She giggled, no she really did, and then she stepped forwards, I could now see in the light of one of the streetlamps that she was at most 20 years old and utterly stunning.

She was symmetrically featured with a small nose, and almost elf like ears, with a light brown hair colour and unnaturally pale skin, full lips which appeared to have a blood red lipstick on (never found out whether it actually was lipstick). The only slightest mar on this face was a slight scar that semicircled her left eyebrow. She looked like a model, correction better than a model.

I stared; she stayed there waiting for me to snap out of it...

5 minutes later I finally found my voice

"uh." Yeah, that was it, very articulate, next time I spoke I'd have to make sure it was something witty, now considering my mental functions were currently disabled I thought it best to reboot them, so from the top.

Breathe in.

Breathe out. Good next step, basic thought processes.

A B C D E F... you get the picture, ok now mathematics and science.

The square of the hypotenuse is equal to the square of the other two sides.

Nothing is ever created or destroyed in a physical or chemical reaction

Etc, etc, etc, safe to say a minute later my brains had reached half standard capacity and I had a vocal response prepared, a quick glance told me she hadn't moved whatsoever during all this, it was unnatural her lack of movement, inhuman even .

"I always pictured you in a black cloak, wielding a scythe." Ok not exactly world class as witty comments go but I was under a lot of pressure at the time

It had a good response, her expression was priceless a mixture of amusement and shock, I personally felt that the playing field had been evened somewhat.

"What makes you so certain I'm going to kill you?"

If I'm honest it was a very good question, why was I so certain? For all I knew this could be a mugging or robbery, except I obviously had nothing to steal and by the looks of it my attacker wasn't intoxicated. A random attack? Might as well kill the person to avoid a jail term via witnesses, ok question answered but there was something else, something in the way she had moved, something in the way she spoke, her stillness, and if I focused her eyes as well that hinted at something wrong, something that wasn't human and most certainly wasn't merciful,

I told her my reasoning as to why I was sure she was going to kill me, but did not include my other suspicions, I might also add I had finally regained my cognitive abilities and was slowly and almost imperceptibly backing away.

"well reasoned," she said in that honeyed voice.

Damn, a certain long buried uh... instinct was beginning to surface and at the worst possible time, well long buried doesn't quite sum it up more like put in a steel vault, 12 miles underground with a 2m wide access tunnel which has a number of randomly rotating cutting lasers, followed by a blast door of pure diamond.

"darn hormones" it took me a second to realize I'd actually said it aloud, almost too quiet for me to hear but somehow from the subdued laugh _she_ had heard it. Typical not only was I going to die but I was going to embarrass myself in the process.

Another quick optical assessment narrowed my theories down to four. Listed in order of most likely to least, No.1 my personal favourite, I was dangerously ill and hallucinating, No.2 and my second favourite because it meant I might be able to do something about it, there had been a significant breakthrough in exoskeleton technology of which I was not aware, No.3 and somewhat mad sounding, something supernatural was occurring in front of me, No.4 I was about to become a victim of extra-terrestrial activity.

As I was thinking all this whilst keeping an eye on my unmoving assailant a probably blind fly, flew into my eye, I blinked and when I opened my eyes less than a second later she was gone.

Thank god, looks like I had been hallucinating after all, ok new plan turn around and walk through the lit areas rather than my park shortcut and admit myself to the nearest psychiatric unit, a good plan, I liked that plan.

So I turned around and promptly threw myself backwards onto the floor and rolled to my feet. Three guesses anyone? Yes there she was, obviously amused at my reaction. I discounted theories 2 and 4.

Apparently she'd had enough fun playing with my mind for she attacked, reflex long turned into instinct caused my to drop beneath the punch which to my shock cracked the wall beside me, her next blow caught me full in the chest, I both felt and heard at least one rib break, I was still alive though which meant she wasn't done toying with me; ouch, that hurt. Which sadly meant I had to discount theory one.

The fight had finally gone out of me as my attacker and soon it seemed likely executioner advanced.

With a cracking voice, " may I at least know the name of my killer, and more to the point their species?" she seemed taken aback by both my bluntness and my accuracy as to what I was dealing with, she shrugged her shoulders slightly obviously battling in her mind as to what to say. After all it was a perfectly reasonable request.

"Lucile is my name, and I am a vampire," suspected as much (not the name, the type of creature) I had just run through my knowledge of myths and narrowed it down to two, the other one was a demon.

Now I've always been a firm believer of know thy enemy, well if I incorporated what I had found from my recent experience to what I knew of vampires, well what was tactically useful anyway, can't go out in daylight – useless the sun had only set an hr ago, mortally afraid of garlic – never believed this one though I thought it mean they had a powerful sense of smell and as I think everyone knows, garlic stinks; faster and stronger than a normal human, and had skin which was like punching a cliff – about as effective as well. Wait, the skin is hard but what about the exposed matter which wasn't skin? Bingo!

I visibly quailed and backed into the wall one foot against it as I tensed, it didn't matter if she noticed she probably still thought I could do nothing to harm her, I wasn't entirely sure either, as she got to within 50 cm of my I sprung and was filled with immense relief as the 2 fingers that were the focus of my strike sank into her eyes.

Authors note: currently considering making this a romance between Lucile and my main character, would appreciate if I should keep it to it's former course of obsessive vampire slayer or create such a romance in later chapters


	4. Chapter 4

I stood there for around 5 seconds, shocked that I had actually just blinded the creature before me, I looked at my opponent then finally pulled my fingers from her eye sockets with a wet pop, ( by her lack of reaction I think she was more shocked than I was) and then as if I needed more problems her eyes visibly began to reform and heal, crap! I obviously wouldn't make it all the way through the park, I looked backwasting precious time as I fought the instinct to run blindly into the darkness.

Now I've always been a firm believer of mind over matter, intellect over instinct. But despite my firm belief in such sayings it was still a battle, behind my I had the lights of the city, in front of me near pitch black darkness, now instinct says that darkness is safer but my mind knew that what I was facing would not be so easily stopped by a mere lack of light.

I ran...


	5. Chapter 5

...towards the well lit road that I had left behind upon entering the park, now that I had decided on a plan of action I had to hope for two things, which if either were wrong... well let's just say the results would be a)rather messy and b)rather bad for me. One was a thought out decision the other relied completely on luck, you see vampires were believed myths, due to this I assumed they went to some length to avoid detection, the 2nd was that if there were witnesses, let's say 5 or more then she wouldn't attack me when she regained her sight.

Naturally I forgot to take into account that the average snail could outrun me but somehow I made it, and nearly ran straight in front of a bus.

Ok, so I look around and by some stroke of luck or chaos theory there is a group of 30 or so people the other side of the road. Perfect! I turned around peering into the oily darkness from which I had just escaped, she was still there, glaring at me from out of the gloom, I raised a hand and waved to annoy her.

And that's when the adrenaline ran out. Suddenly my chest felt as though someone had pierced it with a hot poker and my breathe came in short unsteady gasps. Ironic really. Now no longer in immediate danger I was no longer able to function, I tried to walk but each step jolted my cracked rib, at this rate I'd probably bleed to death internally.

The group, one of them might have a mobile, I tried to move towards them, then stopped. I recognised them, a more loutish, violent group of thugs I would be hard pushed to find, and they would have loved a chance to fight me, particularly in my weakened condition. I was honestly safer with the vampire.

Recap, I was at this point barely able to move and probably bleeding internally, walking towards me was a group of thugs who would more than likely beat me to death, to my left was a creature which was quite literally after my blood.

I beckoned towards Lucile, (no I hadn't lost it) if I could bluff well enough then I might make it through this latest dilemma, sadly I was never good at poker.

Lucile walked towards me, not even attempting to hide her curiosity.

"I know for a fact your going to follow me, and I am going to stay in sight of multiple witnesses the whole way so the least you could do is help me get home."accusational

"You injured me!" she sounded utterly incredulous, very angry and even slightly.

"Well that's what you get for playing with your food." She huffed.

"How did you know?"

"Let's see, you cracked a brick wall and I only have a single broken rib from your attack, you moved completely out of my line of sight in the time it took me to blink, your reflexes are such that you could have stopped any blow I attempted, do you want me to continue?" I made a point of adding as much sarcasm per syllable as possible, probably not wise considering my life depended on her decision (again ironic my life depends on someone who less than 2 minutes ago tried to kill me).

"Ok. Ok. Ok, I get the picture."

"are all vampires so... stereotypical?" I asked curiously

"some but not most"

"so hate to press the issue here, but are you going to help me out here?" I restrained myself from nervously glancing at the approaching, drunken mob.

She sighed before saying "I will, but give me half a chance and your going to be a few pints short"

"I suspected as much" I put an arm round her neck to support my injured side.

She leaned towards me as if to kiss me "sure I can't change your mind" her breath was floral, I could detect both mint and rose, also something coppery. I was about to say no when it hit me, blood thats what the coppery smell was.

"absolutely certain." I replied. She moved away then place an arm under my own then around my back helping to support my weight.

An hour later...

By luck more than judgement I was still alive. I had spent the past hour both quizzing and being quizzed by my non-human acquaintance, on both sides of the line the questions were tactical and I now know at the time of writing entirely honest.

My questions were mainly on the subject of vampires themselves.

I now knew that vampires were not harmed by light but had to avoid direct sunlight, both running water and stakes were pure myth, and the two myths I had casually dismissed as purest nonsense and propaganda the crucifix and holy water, and garlic, well my suspicion it was just that the smell was overpowering for even the non-supernatural which put them off, no actual deterrent for a hunting vampire.

Lucile now knew my weekly schedule, my grading in martial arts and any other such skills, fortunately she didn't ask anything about my knowledge of maths and science – cryptic though this sounds it will soon become obviously important.

As we started up the round my house was on I turned and stopped.

"This is as far as your going!"

"You'll never make it" she sounded almost insulted!

"I will because I must, but I don't care if a nuclear war breaks out overhead _you_ are too much of a risk to my life to let you have such information." I was utterly vehement on this.

"Look around you, no witnesses, if I still only wanted to kill you, you'd be dead!" sadly I noticed she was right, the witnesses I'd been relying on to keep me alive were gone.

"why the sudden change of heart?" I started backing away, doing my best to ignore my aching torso as I prepared to turn and run.

"your not a vampire, that makes you useful ." now we were talking my language, probability, facts, variables from my point of view this could prove very useful for me as well.

"Useful in what way?"

"Bait!" the way she said it sent shivers down my spine as the implications nearly short circuited my brain.

"And if I refuse?"

"Look around." She continued after an appropriately dramatic pause, "lunch!" she flashed her teeth as she said it.

Damned either way then, I ran adrenaline kicking in within seconds dulling the throb from my chest, knowing in my mind that I wouldn't work but not willing to give up hope.

I almost made it, or so it seemed, I'd got halfway when she caught me, I never got close to making it in reality. She knocked me to the floor and pinned me one hand applying pressure to the small of my back, I sighed utterly defeated. She knelt whilst still applying pressure to my back and then put her face in front of mine, she looked irritated.

"One last chance to live, do you accept?" she hissed the words almost spitting them.

"Yes" I sounded quite small as I said the words. My reasoning was long the lines of 'if I'm going to be damned I might as well be alive for it.

"Gooooood" she crooned, I rolled my eyes.

"Can you let me up?"

She released me. "you know most humans would either have started babbling nonsense or try and run of screaming by now." She remarked.

"I hope this deal will not be one-sided." I said through gritted teeth

"Of course not, you get to live."

I let it go.

"I can get home on my own then."

I stormed off knowing full well she was watching my every move.

I slept with a bottle of concentrated hydrochloric acid under my pillow that night.

The dreaded author's note: I know it's rubbish, but plz review to say how it's rubbish, also this actually reflects what I believe I would think under such circumstances

Also any scientific processes or chemicals can be used as said


	6. Chapter 6

My 1st reactions when I awoke were disbelief, shock, denial and the overwhelming desire to book myself a padded cell in a psychiatric facility, these all quickly faded as my mind began to process and organise the information, 5 minutes later my mind almost back to it's former condition I began to theorize. After what I think was just a few minutes my thinking done I opened my eyes.

It was just beginning to get light, to hazard a guess I'd say between 6 and 7 o'clock. I sat up in my bed before I leaped down bending my knees to absorb the noise and the impact.

"Good morning handsome." Said a voice behind me, from the direction of my desk.

I reached for the vial of acid, before realising I'd left it under my pillow, I turned around. Looks like had was the right word for there in her hands was the concentrated acid I had been trusting to keep me alive.

"It's most definitely not good, and I most certainly am not handsome," no really I spent so much time enclosed in my room out of the sun I almost looked pale enough to be a vampire, then again that might explain it.

"Morning" she said.

I grabbed my recently recharged laptop and stormed out of my room grabbing a copy of _Brisingr_ on the way.

I was fuming and probably more to the point not yet completely awake, my 1st task of the day was to make a cup of tea, that done I slowly sipped it the caffeine jolting my system back up to capacity.

Finally I put down the cup officially awake. I turned on my laptop, flicking rapidly through _Brisingr_ as it loaded.

1st stop Google, instant result, several million of them in fact, ok scratch that. I closed the laptop and headed down to the garage.

The garage was filled with an assortment of metals, metalwork tools, old possessions I hadn't the heart to throw away and a broken car.

I grabbed a steel pipe, an iron box, a blowtorch and some steel wiring and set to work.

5 minutes into construction I was interrupted by a gentle tap on my shoulder, I turned the blowtorch still in my hand, she blurred moving faster than I could make out appearing the other side of the garage, I was right then I thought with a certain satisfaction, they weren't indestructible then.

"Knock next time." I said turning back to my work, apparently instantly she was back hovering over my shoulder.

I turned the blowtorch off having soldered the pip to the box then coated the outside with molten steel to strengthen it, the result was around 1 inch squared of metal box and a 4 inch pipe. The more blunt work out of the way it was time for the precision work.

Half an hour later it was finished, I lifted the insane contraption up, I had a weapon that would work even on the bloodsuckers

With a loud creak it promptly fell apart.

A muffled snicker came from behind my left shoulder, I considered lashing out but even if I connected I would be the only one hurt.

"Don't you have some poor innocent bystander to suck dry?" I asked irritably,

"Well it is becoming a chore not to kill you so I guess I'd better leave"

Finally, I felt like dancing a jig, peace and quiet, a normal boring Sunday of surfing the web, playing online games and reading lay ahead. In other words my idea of Utopia.

4 hrs of gaming, 3 reasonable sized novels and 4 science websites later I went to bed.

Only to find to my eternal disgust that it was already occupied, I briefly wondered whether vampires could sleep but decided I wasn't going to ask, in fact I was going to avoid the menacing valkyrie which it appeared had decided to take up residence in my house to my utmost ability, so I headed downstairs intending to sleep on the sofa, naturally when I got there she was apparently asleep there, of course now I knew she wasn't really asleep, the broken car down the garage I grabbed the keys and ran keeping my eyes on _her_, Lucile – I was honestly starting to think of the name as an expletive. Ok out of the house I turned and ran opened the garage then closed the door behind me and locked it pocketing the keys, I climbed into the car and adjusted the seat leaning back and I closed my eyes –

"Goodnight dear" there was a childish glee in the honeyed voice

I jolted up banging my head on the low roof, to my left on the passengers seat was the current bane of my existence – seriously contemplating asking her to kill me at this point. I huffed getting out of the car I then checked all the doors, locked?! I left the garage the door opening just enough to allow me out before rapidly closing it and locking it, I hung the keys up and headed back through the house as expected she was on the sofa, I wasn't bothered this time, I headed upstairs certain that this time I had the upper hand, I grabbed 3 towels on the landing and went into the bathroom.

I lay a towel on the surface of the bath, rolling another up as a pillow, I climbed in thoroughly uncomfortable then proceeded to use the remaining towel as a quilt.

Eventually I fell into a shallow and fitful sleep.

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Authors note: really would appreciate a review even if it's just to say how rubbish it really is


	7. Chapter 7

I awoke to the sound of the shower being turned on. It took half a second to remember where I was sleeping, another quarter to make the link, the remaining quarter before the water hit me was filled with thoughts such as 'oh fuck' 'why me?' 'If there's a god he hates me' and other such ideas.

IT WAS FREEZING!!! Damn it, the god damn leech must have turned the heat dial right down!

I literally leaped out of the bath, and promptly slipped on a bar of soap that I knew hadn't been there when I'd gone to sleep, I fell banging my head on the sink, I'd never fallen unconscious before this point, ever! Yet I'd read enough to know the black dots and fading borders were sure signs I was going to be out of it for a while, as my vision faded I saw Lucile standing over me looking immensely satisfied, even more distinctly I remember my last thought before I finally went under, 'I'm going to be late for school'.

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Approximately 4 hours later...

I woke... my head was instantly throbbing; it hadn't been a refreshing sleep by any means.

I jolted up onto my feet, she wasn't there. Which was lucky for her because I was fully intent on killing her at the time. I checked the clock 11:00 which if normal sleeping patterns applied meant I was unconscious for 4 hours. Still as excuses went for getting out of school this was a good one, now all that remained was to admit myself to hospital with a potential concussion.

I swore that when I caught up with her I would kill her.

The rest of the day was uneventful, although I did find a note saying quite simply 'I'll be in touch'. Still as long as she wasn't annoying me I was fine with it. Strange that I was more focused on her single minded torment of myself than the possibility of her killing me. No actually that made perfect sense. My ability to think and formulate clearly was my most prized ability her annoying me disrupted that, thereby removing clear thinking which involved worrying about imminent death, and a single-minded focus on removing the cause of such a problem.

The next day my life was back to normal and my career back on track.

Wednesday was swimming after school but that to was uneventful,

Thursday passed in it's usual dull manner with a small amount of smoke from the science lesson being the high point of the school day, Judo also passed without major incident.

Friday was the usual mix of looking forwards to the weekend and struggling to stay awake.

Saturday, my personal favourite, get up at 7 have breakfast get dressed, etc, etc, etc,and by 7:30 be at the local leisure centre for karate, at 9 quickly run to the other side of the centre for karate then at 10:30 walk home.

A quick bowl of soup later and I turned on my laptop and began surfing the internet, my 1st visit was to one of my favourite websites, .net where I spent the next half hour drooling to see if there were any new developments on zero point energy or exoskeleton technology, sadly nothing new but I live in hope.

My daily research done I moved onto online gaming, Runescape for around an hour, half an hour of AdventureQuest Worlds, then 2 hours alternating between games on Kongregate.

At 5:30 I cooked a small dish of pasta then ate it, then I read till 7, rereading a rather well thumbed copy of _Brisingr. _My reading done I went to Judo – the high point of my average Saturday – the walk there was refreshing though this time I didn't use my shortcut staying in the well lit areas, I arrived at the club just in time to put the mats out, and I might add to have a heart attack.

The good for nothing, rotten, foul, fiend! How did she do it? and more to the point why? I sighed, it was going to be a long session. I was utterly correct, throughout the training session an invisible battle of wills took place, the session started with the usual warm up, a jog round the mat.

The usual set of drills during the jog, sidestepping, sprints, running backwards and breakfalls, then the coach John making up some excuse gave us all 20 press-ups, now 3 years ago I would have practically collapsed at this now it was easy – also made a point of doing a few press-ups during the session on my fingertips or knuckles – then once those were done we started our practice throws (throws where you go into the throw but don't actually throw them)

Despite my best attempts I somehow got paired with Lucile, depending on what she knew of judo this could be quite fun, to my utter joy it turned out she knew next to nothing, so all I did was the most ineffective throw in all existence till we moved on to actual fighting (No need to give away any pointers)

I knew that despite her lack of knowledge she'd still wipe the floor with me, particularly as she'd spent most of the time watching the others train. But you know what...

...I was absolutely correct, it was hopeless, I got thrown with sacrifices, combos, forwards and backwards throws, leg grabs, almost every throw I knew was used on me in that one small session that I might as well have been Uke (the person thrown in practice) than a combatant. John was impressed to say the least, this continued throughout the session – though I managed to get something in on groundwork, strangles and normal turnovers failed to work but I did disable her once or twice with armlocks.

At the end of the session after putting the mats away I walked down my park shortcut.

I stopped halfway down and waited for the inevitable confrontation, no I hadn't lost it, considering the trouble my bloodsucking associate was going to I very much doubted she would kill me.

I heard a small rustle which if it was the expected person was definitely deliberate.

I waited calmly for her to make her appearance, the slight rustle to my left occurred again, I saw the leaves move slightly out of the corner of my eye, a slight smile at the attempt to unnerve me was my only reaction.

This time a rustle occurred on both sides of me, now that was unnerving and definitely not good for me, for despite her speed even she couldn't circle round me in that amount of time without having to take a path that would let me see her – even in this gloomy half-light, nor was she capable of being in two places at once which meant...

Both my arms were grabbed by my as yet unidentified assailants, from either side. With the 2 of them restraining my there was little I could do. A 3rd walked out of the bushes, I'd recognise that silhouette anywhere. Looks like Louis still held a grudge over losing a fight with me in Yr 7 and had decided to use the gang of thugs he now led to achieve his ends.

"Hey Louis, long time no see." To my credit my voice sounded steady and casual

"Shut up, scum!" his voice filled with hatred I definitely hadn't earned, my jaw ached as he punched me in the mouth.

"Still a coward I see, you need 3 friends just to be brave enough to even try and –" the rest of my sentence was cut of as he punched me square in the stomach.

"Listen you piece of shit, if you think you can goad me into a one on one fight then your an idiot." He stated flatly.

"Square root of 625?" I enquired; well if I was going to take a hiding I might as well goad him as much as possible.

"Eh?"

"Thought not, you never were very smart Louis."

That's when the two thugs holding me pushed to the floor before each kicking my squarely in the ribs, Louis joined in, I fought back at first landing a few good hits in but all too soon was lying in a ball with my arms protecting my face as the three cowardly thugs continued to kick me till I was unable to move, tom y credit I didn't whine or whimper even when my rib rebroke , my left forearm and several ribs soon followed.

Finally after what seemed like an hour but was probably 5 minutes they stopped. It was over, I would probably be found in the morning, bleeding internally, close to death and almost hypothermic but I would still be alive.

I vaguely heard Louis tell the two still unidentified lackeys of his to scarper while he finished up.

Finished up? What more damage could he do without killing me? Obvious answer, he couldn't! He had never intended to let me survive this, he'd merely enjoyed giving me a beating. He grabbed my shoulder and turned me onto my back, a switchblade in his hand.

"I can barely move and you're still not capable of fighting me unaided." I wheezed trying to put as much contempt in my voice as possible; I think one of my ribs may have punctured a lung.

"Actually I was going to let you die on your feet," He sneered, then he roughly lifted me and propped me on my feet against a tree, far easier to stab me when I'm standing I presumed.

And so the steel glinting blade stabbed forwards closing the distance between me and it at an alarming pace, despite the fact I'd always told myself I would look death in the eye when it came I squeezed my eyes shut and waited for the final burning pain to end all my pain.


	8. Chapter 8

They say just before you die that your life is supposed to flash before your eyes, mine didn't – maybe I just hadn't lived long enough. Then again some strange thoughts did pass through my mind; the most prominent was that I wasn't meant to die like this, I'd narrowed down the ways I would probably die to three, each involved me being over 40 and starting to slow down reflex wise, I always thought I'd either die from being bitten by a black mamba or king cobra, or crushed and then eaten by a green anaconda.

Another thing that crossed my mind was regret, regret that I wouldn't get my argument with Lucile; it would have been interesting to say the least.

And so I waited to die, a few seconds later I opened my eyes wondering what was taking so long, I was stunned, Lucile had Louis in a headlock and by the looks of it Louis had stabbed Lucile and broken his blade on her.

"Run!" Run? I doubted I could crawl at that moment in time, and what was the danger? Lucile had Louis completely immobilized and... hold on a second, Lucile is a vampire, vampires drink blood, I have blood, bingo threat figured. Still didn't change the fact I can barely move.

"I can't" I wheezed. God I sounded bad, my injuries must be worse than I thought (which was definitely saying something).

" I said get going,"

"I meant it Lucile, I physically can't, I doubt I could manage a slow commando crawl right now"

"Then crawl!" she sounded vicious almost feral this time – I started crawling.

It was becoming increasingly obvious that being anywhere near her in the near future would be a very bad idea, so I crawled, not on all fours, I was crawling one arm in front of the other dragging myself along. I heard Louis scream, I increased my pace fully aware that if I didn't hurry I would be the one screaming. To be completely honest I was deluding myself, I had as much chance of escaping the blood maddened fiend I was trying to evade as I had flying to the moon.

A few minutes later the screaming stopped, if I were to guess I'd gotten 100 maybe even 200 metres away from my starting point. I briefly wondered if Lucile had left after 'lunch' before deciding it was irrelevant and continued crawling.

Ten seconds later I stopped as a pair of black high heeled walked into my line of sight; I gulped inaudibly and looked up, sure enough there she was, her eyes were blazing red, not just the crimson colour of earlier but a deep blood red colour that seemed to almost burn your sight with it's intensity.

"Good meal?" I asked nervously, "filling I hope?"

She laughed, though I was unsure if it was at my obviously strained voice or the actual question itself.

"It tasted good enough, though I'm not quite full yet."

She grabbed my shirt and picked me up with only a single hand, I was too weak to even lash out, in other words I was entirely at her mercy.

She leaned in, she wasn't breathing even more evidence of the strangeness of the creature which it seemed was about to kill me, as I felt her fangs on my throat it seems in a last attempt to salvage some sense from the situation my mind decided it was time to faint, and I don't mean just fell to the floor fainted; I mean eyes rolled up into the back of my head fainted, the last I saw was Lucile withdraw surprise on her face as once again my vision went, completely unsure if I would ever wake up.

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An unknown amount of time later

I woke up. Which to be honest was a rather large surprise, surprise number to was to realise I was asleep in my own bed wearing a set of pyjamas I hadn't worn in ages. The next few things I noticed was that it was light, so at least the following day, I sat up slightly and glanced at the clock, 12pm it read, the next thing was that I still hurt all over so I hadn't been submitted to hospital, I put a hand on my chest and pushed, to my disgust the amount of pain caused me to whimper slightly – which meant my ribs were still broken. It shows my frame of mind that it is only then that I noticed I wasn't the only one in the bed; I narrowly managed to stop myself diving off the bed.

"Leave now!"I hissed. I honestly didn't know if she was asleep or even if she could sleep, but come hell or high water she was leaving.

No response except a light snore, which was actually kind of cute though it gave away the fact it was all an act as I knew she didn't need to breath.

"Get up, I know your awake the snore gave it away." She sat up, her eyes were still blood red but no longer hurt to look at, as she sat up the quilt covering her slipped revealing the fact she was completely nude. I was fuming, here I was barely able to move and she was still playing mind games?!

"GET OUT!" I'd finally lost my control over my long subdued anger. "IF YOUR NOT GONE IN 30 SECONDS I WILL FIND A WAY TO KILL YOU!"

There was a blur and she was gone. I was actually quite shocked that she'd listened, then again I was angry enough to actually try and follow through with the threat, and I might have succeeded.

I stayed resting in bed for the next 2 days before hunger and dehydration finally persuaded me to use what little strength I had to get up. I cooked a large dish of pasta, ate a 3 packets of luncheon meat in the fridge then drank 2 pint glasses of milk and 1 of orange juice before going back to sleep.

This continued for a month as I slowly healed, I got my school teachers to email my schoolwork to me, by the time my ribs had healed and most of the bruises had faded I had ran out food in the fridge and freezer and all I had left to drink was water. On the bright side I saw neither hide nor hair of Lucile.

And so February moved into March I was finally back into my normal condition, well almost, I was slightly malnourished where I wasn't eating properly and slightly weaker from lack of exercise.

The 1st thing I did once I was well enough to leave the house was walk down to the local co-op and stock up on food and buy some milk and some teabags, once I got back I put the shopping away and went back to sleep.

The following morning was Monday and I was seriously starting to wonder if that 1st night I had been set upon and then hallucinated the rest as I healed.

School was normal, the teachers were impressed that I'd actually done all the work they sent me, I quite honestly answered that there wasn't much else to do.

It was surprisingly easy to fall back into the old routine, then again why wouldn't it be? Nothing had really changed, right?

And really it hadn't.

A week later and no contact from Lucile, which was relief, although I did feel like I was deliberately closing the door on a major scientific opportunity, I mean vampires weren't supposed to exist, and according to logic couldn't exist.

Still no going back, and I still had my old dreams, the dreams which had kept me forging my way through my education as quickly and as accurately as possible, when I finally left school the first thing I'd be doing was buying a plane ticket to Brazil. Then I'd use any money I didn't need for the return ticket to hire a guide and some supplies. I still wasn't sure how long I'd spend in the Amazon at least a month, possibly up to a year, or if one of the native species got me, an eternity.

Funny thing eternity it's easy to use as a word yet when you actually think about it it's nearly impossible to get your head round, same problem with infinity

And so the days passed and the days turned to weeks and the weeks to months, and fact turned to memory and memory to dream and dream to a mere memory of a dream. And so the events were slowly buried deep beyond even the subconscious buried beneath layer upon layer of useless data stored away just in case it might one day be used.

In other words I forgot.


	9. Chapter 9

Authors Note: I would really appreciate a review

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2 Years later...

Not much had changed, I was still the same though I had made a point of keeping in shape after the attack by Louis, one day I would catch up with him I told myself, one day. My knuckles were callused from punching a rubber board repeatedly (sounds pointless but the calluses were the point they hardened my hands so I could punch harder and it would hurt less) I also made sure I never got a 6 pack because it would lower my flexibility and mobility, while still making sure I had strong stomach muscles. It was a hard balance to keep. But that was just changes in my physical stature and minor ones at that. I was uneasy and bordering on paranoid, didn't know why. You know that sense you get, the one that tells you your being watched, and despite all the evidence to the opposite you just can't shake it? Well I had it. Constantly!

Still I don't know what I'm complaining about, at the time life had never been better, I had just passed my A-levels, with flying colours I might add. I had progressed rapidly in karate and now had a brown belt, I even had a small book about to be published, merely a 100 or so pages, it was entitled_ The Origins of Myths _ a small project I had been doing on and off since the age of 10. In most myths and legends there was a small grain of truth, take for example the loch ness monster, I believed it to have originated from a particularly large eel, you see in the water as long as the creature can find enough food and has enough room it can just grow and grow till it dies of old age. Another example would be the zombie myth, the person would be bitten by an poisonous snake (usually a black mamba) and appear to be dead, the person would then be buried and a few days later having recovered from the poison, dig themselves out and thee local tribesmen would believe them to have risen from the dead, (though they usually are killed by the poison).

3 of the more universal myths are dragons, vampires and god. It is my belief that dragons, due to the fact the myth is world-spread even in ancient cultures, are I believe the result of ancestral memory from back when we were small mammals running away from dinosaurs, god is mere universal wish, almost a need to believe that we're not alone, that there is some higher power. As to vampires I believe that such a myth was created as a way for man to come to terms with its own mortality, a foolish idea immortality, the modern belief of vampires was further developed from Vlad the Impaler. For vampires cannot exist, they defy instinct, they defy THE instinct, the one that all life answers to, be it plant, animal, micro-organism or fungi. The death instinct, the instinct that cause all things to wither and die, the instinct which causes us to age. Nothing escapes it. Therefore vampires cannot exist.

Of course all the philosophy about wishful thinking and self delusion I left out of the book.

Anyway, I was about to take a gap year before university, but first there was a graduation party – which some idiot had decided would be fancy dress. Being as this was going to be the last mass gathering I intended to attend I put a bit of thought into the costume, I was going for evil wizard/necromancer. I cannibalized 2 grim reaper costumes from earlier Halloweens to create a set of black robes complete with black cloak and hood, the only way anyone would be able to recognise me was from my hands (my skin was bleached white from spending almost all my time indoors on the PC). So in my rather over the top costume I left for the party (walking naturally, so I had to leave 2 hours early).

The party went well, as did the journey back. Once back home I collapsed on the bed asleep within seconds (which was strange for me, it usually took hours).

The next day

Today was the day, I'd finally get to go to Brazil, see the Amazon, then a year later (if I was still alive I'd return to England for my university degree.

The flight was uneventful, and if honest boring. After picking up my luggage (which consisted of a packed backpack), using the small amount of money I had brought along I got a taxi which dropped me at a lodge at the edge of the Amazon, I signed up for the guided tour. The next day I left on the tour, as soon as the guide's back was turned I dived into the river and swam to the bank. Now most people would consider this insane, what with the red bellied piranha, the kamen and crocodiles, the occasional bull shark, the giant leeches and the green anaconda. However red bellied piranha only attacked during the dry season and only when they can smell blood on they're victim, rather amusingly your average swimmer can outswim a crocodile or kamen while they can out run humans on land, bull sharks are very rare in the Amazon, leeches were almost certainly not fatal, and anacondas were rare to be seen at all. I was halfway to the riverbank before anyone noticed, so with they're cries for me to come back ringing in my ears I proceeded into the forest.

Of course this wasn't some spur of the moment action, I'd been carefully planning this for just over a year, admittedly there were to many variables to have a perfect plan, still everything had gone to plan so far.

My 1st step once I was sure I was deep enough not to be found too easily was to set up a base camp. Step 1 was to string up a hammock between two trees at a height of 10 metres (presumably safe), I then put 2 layers of mosquito netting over the top along with an extra layer of cloth (apparently vampire bats lived in the Amazon, though I wasn't certain about the validity of the site I read it on I thought better safe than sorry). It was then I noticed the leech, it was attached to the back of my leg and was thoroughly bloated with blood, now leech saliva is apparently laced with anticoagulants and anaesthetic hence why the blood was still flowing and why I didn't feel a thing. My first instinct was to rip it off and kill it, I managed to restrain myself – just. Logically I could spare a bit of blood and the creature was merely feeding, also to just rip it off would be cruel and make the injury an actual wound, the proboscis would detach and I would bleed far more severely. I calmly got a box of matches from my pack and lit one. I placed it near the leech, the leech almost touching the bright flame quickly detached itself from my leg and fell off quickly heading towards the nearest water source, I noted it's direction so I'd know where to go when I needed to get water.

Ok so mini-crisis over I quickly covered the leg which was bleeding, the blood refusing to clot, I wrapped the leg in bandages then just had to hope that of the 4 species I could think of which would even consider eating a human none were in the vicinity. Still the chances of that were remote at best and even lower that they would attack anyway, they may consider eating humans but they sure as hell didn't like the taste, then again not many animals did, the occasional tiger developed a taste for humans and polar bears actively hunted them given the chance, fortunately for me both were on another continent. In other words I was safe as houses – theoretically that is.

I continued to set up camp cutting a series of wooden torches from the trees using a machete I had attached to the pack. As night drew in I realised it would soon be too dark to make any more preparations, so with the limited defences I had I attached the machete on a string which I knotted to the hammock then ate some of the rations I had brought along before lighting the torches with another match and getting into the hammock, most creatures feared fire, in fact nearly all of them so meagre though all these preparation sounded I was actually defended from the sole flying menace, I had a weapon near at hand and the fire was a near guarantee that I wouldn't need it.

My last thought before I fell asleep was that if something did get me then it probably had more than earned it's food.

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Author's Note: Any guesses as to what happens next?  
Also all the reasons for myths are either proven or believed to be likely


	10. Chapter 10

I awoke, the sunlight streaming onto my face. Sunlight? I didn't remember leaving the curtains open last night. I sat up, and the hammock twisted throwing me onto the ground below. Ah now I remember. THUD! I got up of the moist earth, relatively uninjured. I carefully got up unattaching the machete from it's cord, I spent the better part of the day cutting wooden spears and wedging them firmly into the ground in a square around the 2 tree, I left a small space for an entrance my camp now approx 20m in all directions, by now I was sweating profusely and both hungry and thirsty, I got out a bottle of water (one of three I'd brought along for before I was fully encamped) and ate another quarter of the rations. Food would soon be a problem. It seemed sad really, two days I'd been in this untamed wilderness –one of the few on the planet – and I still hadn't had a chance to explore. After a month (by then I should be well established) I should be able to go back to the lodge (assuming I could find it), go back into the city and pick up some other things I'd need.

As night approached I prepared 10 wooden torches, 8 to set around the camp, 4 outside, 4 inside, and 2 for if any animals got in to scare them off personally. I now had the 2 torches and the machete attached to my hammock, I was probably bordering on paranoid but I felt far safer with the 8 burning torches and the 2 unlit ones plus the machete. (the spears probably numbered around three hundred)

The next day I awoke once more to sunlight but this time I wasn't disoriented, so I climbed down the tree, retrieving the machete first of course, task numero uno of today was to make tonight's torches and a wooden spear. So machete through my belt I then placed my pack in my hammock and wandered in the direction the leech went ( I assumed it had gone towards water), 5 minutes walking later and I reached the river, and came to a profound oversight on my part, I needed a boat.

So I waited lying on my front by the riverbank, unmoving spear poised in my hand waiting for a fish to get close enough, 20 minutes later a fish came within reach, I stabbed down...

And missed completely, scaring the fish aware and disturbing the waters calm. This cycle continued for the rest of the morning and most of the afternoon till I finally caught a fish, it was tiny barely a mouthful of flesh on it's body, I gave up throwing the minute corpse into the river knowing full well that something would eat it.

I headed back to camp mentally exhausted.


	11. Chapter 11

I woke, it was still dark, the torches hadn't burnt out less than half an hour ago, the embers were still glowing, considering how tired I'd been when I went to sleep something must have woken me.

I slowly sat up slightly and stuck my head over the edge of the hammock, a pair of glowing eyes fixed on mine, I'd been spotted. Slowly I grabbed the short rope to which the machete was attached (at least I hoped it was the machete rope) sure enough as I slowly pulled the rope keeping my gaze on the glowing eyes of the predator below me I felt the handle of the machete fit into my hand.

The eyes seemed to slowly hypnotise you, the pupils mere slits, I slowly dropped my gaze and lay back down and hope the predator would go away. Then again considering what I knew of this particular hunter it could just as likely climb the tree. I waited and listened both wanting and not daring to sleep. I heard it rip into my pack, presumably my food would be gone by tomorrow, I stayed still unmoving for half an hour at least but heard no more before sleep finally reclaimed me.

When I woke my nighttime visitor was gone, the only sign it had ever been here were claw marks in the trees and that my backpack was in pieces, the equipment I'd brought spread across the campsite.

As soon as I was down to the forest floor I examined the pawprints left behind, jaguar and a large one by the looks of it. Slightly more pressing was the matter of food, if I didn't get the hang of spearfishing in 2 days then I'd have to return to the lodge, 8 years of planning for nothing!

So naturally the 2nd thing I did was pick up my wooden spear, put my machete and an unlit torch and lighter through my belt and head off to the tributary I found the day before.

The fishing went well, I caught 3, 2 catfish and one piranha. As I hadn't brought a knife with me I'd have to gut them back at the camp or try and do it with the machete. I chose camp, sure the blood may attract the jaguar but it seemed a safer alternative than accidently cutting my hand off.

Back at camp I eventually lit a fire, it was strange really that so far I had seen no rain in this rainforest, although the air was permanently humid, after rather messily gutting the fish I then proceeded to thoroughly burn them. On purpose I might add as I had no real cooking equipment or a thermometer I thought it best not to risk food poisoning. The fish – naturally – tasted burnt but it was filling at least, I then proceeded back to the river and flung the corpses in.

My next objective was to clear up the mess left from the jaguar's nocturnal visit. My bag was practically torn in half so there was no point in repacking it, which meant I had to find some way of hiding it, which over the course of an hour I did except for a few choice items. Then I had to put small wooden signs by each, by the end of it my knife was blunt.

All that was finally finished just as night struck, so climbing into the hammock I left the machete and torches dangling from the rope – along with a lighter in my pocket as I didn't have time to make some more wooden torches that day – also an item from home (I will say no more) had it's strap around my shoulder and it was dangling by my hip.

Slowly but surely I fell into a fitful sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

For the first time in years I had a nightmare.

I was alone, I was disoriented, I was floating? I looked around and saw the Earth, except it wasn't that green and blue orb you see on TV, it was covered in gray and black, translucent giving tantalising glimpses of the surface below, then it started, from the north pole a circular wave of fire began to extend, a perfect circle slowly expanding as it dropped to encompass the planet before me, stopping at the south pole. Nothing could have survived for beneath me the Earth had been reduced to molten rock, yet I was no longer alone.

Somehow walking through the void of space was what looked like a human being, except her eyes seemed to burn as the Earth had mere seconds ago, she had light brown hair and seemed vaguely familiar. As she moved towards me she changed elongating into a black snake like creature which I soon recognised as a leech, yet in an instant she was human again as she leapt at me knocking me over as a black feline creature ripped over where my head had been.

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I jolted upright, almost falling out of the hammock. I didn't fall though. Which was fortunate for beneath me was the jaguar once more. Also I had a 3/10 chance of surviving the 10 metre fall.

Why didn't it climb the tree, as I reached for the machete the creature growled. Ah, that was it, it knew what a weapon could do and it knew I had one, apparently it didn't fancy it's chances if it had to climb to get to me.

And so the waiting game continued, we both tried to stare the other down, neither of us dropping our gaze for even an instant.

Eventually, hours later as the first signs of dawn appeared on the horizon the jaguar slunk off into the undergrowth and I lay back and let sleep take me, I was exhausted beyond belief and my nerves were utterly shot.

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I woke well past midday, I felt like I was being fried. I soon found out to my annoyance that I was severely sunburnt from spending most of the day up in the canopy. 'Perhaps spending so much time indoors that my skin bleached wasn't such a good idea' I thought as I climbed down the tree. At the base of it I sat down and began to puzzle out the meaning of my dream. Now not all dreams have meanings but sometimes they are the minds way of organising thoughts and facts.

The subconscious often picks up on things the conscious mind misses, so if I begin my deductions at the beginning.

I was alone – now I'd made a point of being as isolated as possible, so far it had made my life easier, and being in the Amazon was about as isolated as you could get, but why was my self-enforced isolation a problem? What did my subconscious know that I didn't? Or was I misreading it?

The world was polluted and burning – self explanatory really, all the evidence shows that CO2 and other major pollutants were causing the positive feedback systems to kick in, many claimed that if we didn't stop soon we'd end up destroying the Earth, or for the more pessimistic or the better informed that point was already passed so we might as well make the most of the last few years of life.

Then there was the creature – what was it? Why did it/she seem familiar? Why did it protect me?

The final detail that of the jaguar was obvious, it was my body's way of waking me up and alerting me to the danger.

Sadly these conclusions seemed somewhat lacking but they'd have to do for now.

So tiredly I went down to the stream to once more try my hand at spearfishing.

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In spite of the lack of sleep I realised I'd never been happier, I had completely escaped the rules of society, I was utterly free, also with so much to do just to survive there just wasn't time to be unhappy. It appears I had stumbled upon the ideal existence. Which brought the question of when the time came, would I actually leave?

Pondering this question I fell once more into slumber.

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Authors Note: Yes I know this chapters rubbish and rather boring but I need to include it to establish a mindset of the character.


	13. Chapter 13

My nerves were utterly shot, for the past week that jaguar had interrupted my sleep, keeping me awake out of fear, twice now it had confronted me in the daytime, each time slinking off into the forest the moment my hand went to my machete.

It was unnerving. And each day I was more jumpy than the last, and above all the lack of sleep was making me highly irritable, then again that may have just been because of the sunburn.

Today I'd decided I'd had enough and had deliberately slept through the entire day in preparation for the arrival of my nocturnal bane. The sunburn would drive me nearly insane tomorrow but if I succeeded it would be worth it.

As dusk hit I dropped from halfway up the tree into a crouch, then I went to the torches and lit them, I also had 2 unlit torches which I would light when my feline opponent turned up. The machete through my belt along with the torches, and the weight of my other weapon at my hip all that remained was to grab a spear from the perimeter and wait.

As the torches burnt out I stood with my back to one of the two trees within my encampment, this wasn't what I'd hoped for, without the light of the torches my spear was useless, and as a spear was a 2 handed weapon, the small torches through my belt were useless. Annoyed I tossed the spear aside, watching with disinterest as it rolled into the dark and out of my field of vision.

I lit one of the torches at my belt and removed the machete, if the jaguar kept to it's schedule it would be along within 10 minutes.

Sure enough around 5 minutes later I saw the amber light reflecting eyes of the jaguar come into view, seeing as the jaguar was black it's eyes were the only clearly visible part of it's body outside the field of light projected by the torch.

The eyes dropped a centimetre or two, I held the machete out in front of me in my left hand while I held the torch to my right, I wasn't very good at using two weapons in concert so things were likely to get very dangerous, very quickly.

It leapt. The only warning I got was that the eyes were going towards me with a speed and power I would compare with a freight train, then again I was probably biased.

As it came crashing back to earth I sliced at it with machete, shallowly cutting it in one of the forelegs, this was why I'd wanted the spear, jaguars had been known to be fatally wounded and still kill their attacker before succumbing to the wound, with a spear you could both wound it and ground it so it was slower with the spear dragging.

This series of events continued repeatedly, every now and then one of its paws would catch me knocking me flying and causing deep claw wounds where it caught. Each time I rolled to me feet before it could turn and follow up on the attack.

Nether the less I was slowly tiring, while the big cat before me showed no such sign. Realising that if this continued I would lose – the victim of blood loss and exhaustion – I changed tactics.

Instead of using the machete on the next jump I struck out with the burning torch, the jaguar hissed as it tried to dodge in the air, I could smell burnt hair.

Now at last the big cat was wary, instead of the relentless series of leaps we now circled each other looking for an opening, every now and then I would lash out with the torch careful not to overextend and overbalance, nothing was happening, as time lagged on the pain of my wounds begin to override my currently adrenaline ruled existence.

The tension in the air slowly increased as neither side actually attacked each other, content with merely waiting for a sign that the other was finished, blood greased the skin of both of us like sweat.

Finally I'd had enough of waiting, slowly careful not to let my guard down in my tired, light-headed, adrenaline fuelled state, I backed my way to the boundary of my camp and putting the machete through my belt, I took a spear from the many facing outwards into the endless green of the Amazon.

It was awkward holding the spear in one hand and my wrist soon ached, I advanced upon my night-time tormentor.

In a single swift movement I threw the burning torch at the jaguar using the momentum of the swing to get a grip on the spear. I ran forwards taking advantage of my foe's momentary distraction and thrust the spear into it's chest, sliding between the ribs and piercing the heart. Strangely it was only now that things would be really dangerous. I jammed the butt of the spear into the ground and held it – if I let go it would be upon me in an instant. Eventually the jaguar stopped moving, relieved I let go of the spear, I was injured, bleeding, sunburned to the point of being a microwave TV dinner and hurting all over, but I was alive; and I felt alive, adrenaline was almost saturating my mind, I felt wonderful , I felt invincible, I felt... the adrenaline ran out, I tried to take a step towards the trees and collapsed.

I felt terrible, surely I must be dying, no creature could survive this! I was in agony. I slowly crawled to the trees and then collapsed once more.

I felt light headed as the blood loss became apparent to my aching brain.

When I finally fell asleep, sure that I would never wake again, I counted it as a mercy.

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Author's Note: For the few people reading this, don't worry I'm not killing him off. Also any chance of a review?


	14. Chapter 14

I had enjoyed living in the Amazon, after my run in with the jaguar I'd developed a new confidence. I was the king of the jungle here, unstoppable, I ate more than just fish, I hunted pretty much anything that crossed my path, I stole crocodile eggs at one point, I knew which fruit to eat.

Life in the Amazon was paradise, so when the year was up it was with severe regret I left.

So I finally left for England, I was more aware than ever of the destruction mankind reaped to the planet. Soon even the Amazon would be gone.

It was difficult to settle back into my old routine, I put my katana back on it's stand, I'd never had to use it.

I'd developed a tan in the year I'd spent in the Amazon to replace my ghost pale skin. My long hair was even longer and still tied in the same ponytail it had been in when I left.

It was strange sleeping in a bed again. Almost uncomfortable, also for some reason or other I hung mosquito netting over the bed from the ceiling. I had the machete knotted to the bed – in it's leather sheath this time, I didn't want to behead myself getting out of bed.

I never did achieve my main reason for going to the Amazon, never saw a green anaconda. Still I had enjoyed my time there, I did regret not managing it – I regretted it a lot.

The first day back I did 2 things, I applied to the Bristol university and I got a job at Waterstones.

The job was nice, putting books on shelves, talking to people about books, helping find books, the only part of the job I didn't enjoy was being at the tills. Also I was only being paid minimum wage, rather shockingly I came to the conclusion that I had eaten better in the Amazon.

So I rejoined the judo club I'd been going to – I could no longer afford aikido and the other martial arts I'd been doing.

It was boring and the only hope I had of any improvement was if the university accepted me.

It didn't.

Then I remembered the book, for although _The Origins of Myths_ had not become a bestseller but it had made me some money, just over £1,000. Not enough to allow me to maintain my old lifestyle of multiple martial arts, but enough to remove the strain and allow me to continue with my Judo.

Judo was the 1st martial art I'd learned and therefore was my favorite, a close runner up was Aikido which unlike Judo's use of the transfer of motion or weight instead focused on nerve holds, strangles and other such methods of temporary disablement. A well applied nerve hold could temporarily paralyze a limb, or if certain nerve holds were applied at once kill. However nerve holds required precision, not something easy to do on a moving target. Actually learned was the right word, learning, I doubted anyone knew and had perfected all the attacks in any of the many martial arts.

As a point it was null and void, I was learning judo and that was that.

I always avoided the park at night, one path in particular I avoided even in the day, I didn't know why, memories whispered in my mind forgotten and unwanted and therefore ignored. Still it liked the park, it was quiet, calm, peaceful even.

There was a wall there, it had cracks running through it round the imprint of a fist, whenever I needed to clear my head, whether it be from a long day at work, or a Judo session, or sometimes after I'd been up so long reading textbooks that my vision doubled, I'd go there. I wasn't sure why, but when I was at my lowest ebb I'd got there, more often than not I'd find my mind wandering to my near death experience in the Amazon – I still regretted killing it. And then my mind would wonder deep into itself as though seeking some dark secret.

And then I'd return to the harsh reality of life, to the here and now, where I felt dead inside, my life was going nowhere. Instead of the daredevil, constant brush with death lifestyle I'd envisaged I was going nowhere, even my visit to the Amazon had not been a complete success I hadn't seen an anaconda.

I was returning from Judo one Saturday when another such mood hit me. I must have sat on that wall for nearly an hour, pondering the pitifulness of the human condition, the wastefulness, the hate, the envy, we were conscious beings yet we seemed completely intent on destroying ourselves.

Just as I was doing, just by sitting there. I was a wreck, that single half an hour a week of adrenaline from judo was my high point.

I decided I would try again, get my life back in shape, change myself, still the memories whispered but I listened no more, when my mind told me to avoid my old shortcut I consciously ignored it.

I think it might be worth adding that I was still in my white judogi,which probably explained why I was freezing.

As I walked down the path cold fingers gripped my shoulder with crushing strength, the fingers pressed into the joint dislocating my shoulder, but as my shoulder popped out of place something in my mind clicked back in, the cold grip of the person acting as a trigger, with my left shoulder out I dropped into a crouch pulling their arm over with my right arm, as my assailant regained their feet I punched them with an open handed strike to the nose, sadly it was with my right hand so not as effective as it would have been. Still I was a lot stronger now than back then, not that it made a difference.

"Deja vu anyone?" well it beat the verbal repartee I had given last time, I stared into the crimson eyes that glared back.

"You!" Why did it sound as if she was accusing me? I noticed that I felt better than I had in months, even with the dislocated shoulder.

"Can you give me ten seconds before we get into the whole arguing, trying to kill each other thing? I need to get my shoulder back in."

I fully expected her to leap on me and proceed to eat me as I walked over to the wall and slammed my shoulder into it as hard as I could.

OW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well at least this proved what I'd read that it was more painful putting it back in than the actual dislocation.

"Ready now." I said trying to keep the pain from my voice. I continued, "why always martial artists?"

"You fight back, your fun to eat." oh great now my attacker is a confirmed sadist.

"Can't you just leave me alone?"

"No." she sounded amused.

She moved as a blur, one instant three metre away, then right in front of me. I realised at last that I was in love, everything I'd read pointed to it.

I decided to take a major gamble and kissed her full on the mouth.

Author's Note: I rather enjoyed writing this chapter, however the next promises to be even better.


	15. Chapter 15

I noticed her tense, shock was evident from her body posture, fortunately I didn't find myself killed by a rather powerful blow to the ribs, instead she began to kiss back, shyly and first but within seconds aggressive, my lips were starting to bruise. I put my arms around her, one pulling her head into the kiss, the other around her back.

She was still tense, as though she thought I might have some fiendish ploy in mind, she was correct of course.

I had to go for air, I took the opportunity to speak.

"Relax, I have nothing left, your faster, stronger than I am, and your not one to fall for the same trick twice." That rather breathlessly said I dove back into the kiss. She relaxed, slightly.

The next time I went for air she spoke, disengaging from what was almost combat in itself.

"I'm too hungry to go search for a different morsel you know, your still going to die."

"I know," I was completely relaxed as I said it, I'd accepted my death back in the fight with the jaguar.

A breath later she spoke again.

"So when did you learn to kiss my handsome little judo player." She was completely at ease, in her element in fact, for there was nothing I could do, she was too fast, too strong, plus I'd admitted I was out of tricks.

"I didn't," It was true.

I pulled her closer sensing that she would kill me soon, as I said I had accepted it.

I snaked one of my arms down her back, carefully feeling the contours of her spine. I released the hand.

Then jabbed the knuckle as hard as I could into one of the nerve centers next to the spine.

Her leg muscles hopefully if I was correct had locked so at the same time as the jab I swept her feet out from under her tapping her ankles together with what actually might have been my least favorite throw in the entire syllabus.

I turned and run, she would be paralyzed for a minute at most. In retrospect I probably should have applied some more holds while she was down.

I kept running, thankful I'd bothered to keep in shape, I'd missed this, the adrenaline from a near death experience was unbelievable, it was that rush I was in love with not her. She just happened to be what I could only consider a walking near death experience.

Still running I made it out of the park, I kept running. I was only 2 streets away when she found me. And she was furious. The first I knew of it I'd been knocked flying I skidded down the street like a skimming stone, my skin rubbed off, drawing blood.

I tried to crawl the rest of the way, a shoe, correction a stiletto high heel came down on my back, stabbing into it, my mind registered that it hadn't hit a major organ, sadly my mind also registered it hurt.

"Would sorry help?" I goaded weakly, for once my heart just wasn't in the insult.

I would have to guess no as the heel pierced my back once more, again missing the organs.

"You know noone likes a sore loser?" another stab.

" I really - " stab, still no organs pierced.

And then I'm lifted up onto my teeth as I find myself face to face with a snarling fanged monster. And then instead of the ravenous beast of a second ago, she starts crying, well sobbing really as she physically can't cry. She weakly beats at my chest, still each hit will likely raise huge bruises. I don't complain, I don't do anything except put my arms around her, of all the irony here I am comforting a vampire undergoing an emotional breakdown, is it irony? I'm not sure. I could probably sell this I thought, if I wrote it down as a novel I'd make a fortune.

She collapses completely still sobbing, not sure what else to do (though certain stuff like this could only ever happen to me) I picked her up and cradled her in my arms, she was surprisingly light.

* * *

I slowly began to walk home not knowing if I was making a huge mistake, after all for all I knew she'd had centuries to brush up on her acting skills and I only knew so much about body language.

She didn't try anything, didn't do anything to help either. The really difficult bit was getting through the front door, after that I dropped her on the sofa. Then leaving her to her own devices I went up to my room.

I wasn't a complete fool, as soon as she recovered she'd be on me like a shot. Which would be what would happen whether I'd left her or not, so I removed the katana from it's display case, put the strap on the right shoulder/ with the sheathe with the blade within knocking against my left side with every step. The next weapon I armed myself with was rather more modern, and rather experimental, I knew it had worked before I'd modified it for an increased power output and storage capacity. A ruby laser gun.

Instead of the traditional single power pack attached I had a whole belt that was a power pack.

After that I got a wooden chopstick which I'd carefully sharpened the end to a point – it wouldn't pierce the skin unless I applied a lot of force but I actually needed it so I could apply more pressure and precision in case I had to use another nerve hold.

Now sufficiently armed I went back downstairs. My next task for the day, watch TV with a vampire, Why did I let myself get into these situations?

Ah, I remembered I liked the constant excitement, the thrill of adventure, plus the scientist in me was also thoroughly thrilled.

So we watched the television, well I doubt either of us really watched, if asked I wouldn't have even been able to name the program, we were both completely cocooned in our own thoughts.

The silence was absolute, well if you excluded the TV, it was a strange silence, not friendly but not exactly cold either. I was the first to speak.

"I'm just going to make a cup of tea, do you want one?" I really needed the caffeine and I wanted to actually know whether they could eat or drink but didn't want to be too obvious about it.

A slight shake of the head was all I got. Three minutes later I returned with the hot drink, by the looks of things she hadn't moved since I'd left the room, her eyes were fixed on some point above the TV, of course with the speed she could move that didn't mean anything, I checked to make sure that all 3 weapons were still on my person – they were.

"Anyone there?" I waved my hand in front of her face, one of her arms whipped out and caught mine, I knew exactly what was going to happen next, sure enough I got twisted round, my bent back and pressure steadily applied to the shoulder joint.

"Alright I give, you can let go now," she kept applying pressure, "I said I give in,"

She let go, I went straight for the katana trying to roll backwards into a crouch, I made it to the crouch, of course I mean she allowed me to make it to the crouch, unless surprise was completely on my side I didn't stand a chance. Still to say I didn't like what was probably going to happen would be untrue, this was where I fought best, on the floor I was generally stronger and quicker than my opponent, of course none of this applied but the general techniques were still useful and -

Who was I kidding, it was hopeless, every time I made it back a fighting stance i was just knocked over again, after around the 15th time instead of rolling away and disengaging I gripped instead trying to get a nerve pinch on her wrist, nothing.

I just couldn't do anything. The bruises were piling up and consider the injuries I'd already sustained and after a few minutes I would be too sore to move.

I went for the laser gun, turned and fired, she blurred and left, leaving the smell of burning and very confused me.

Why hadn't she killed me?

* * *

Author's Note: Leaves a lot of questions to be answered doesn't it? R&R. Seriously unless I get another review I won't be making any more updates. Also a number of questions will be answered also the next chapter signifis the start of his vampire slayer career


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